Wonderland
by Arufabetto
Summary: He's being played, and Mello needs to save him. Mello/Matt. Shounen-Ai. Oneshot, but may be edited to be continued later.


A/N: I wrote this for school. I planned on saving the original idea for this, Alice in Wonderland set in a toy box, for a massive chaptered story, but I /really/ needed a plot for the school thing, so I had to use this one. xc It really makes no sense, so at the bottom I have an explination. xD Oh andddd I may edit this later and make it the first chapter, and actually make this into the chaptered story I wanted it to be.

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The prince made his palace in miniature. He knelt upon the soft, dark purple carpeting, white blonde hair falling softly into his face. The soft folds of soft white pajamas settled around his folded legs, and he would stop to gently smooth them out every so often, and to twirl a lock of his hair. Spread out before him was a mass of brightly colored toys, carefully arranged to display a castle scene, complete with a prince and princess in the garden together.

He smiled and quietly moved the pieces around, mouthing the words of their imagined conversations. There was a sharp knock on the door and he glanced up. "Yes?"

The door swung open. "Yo, brat. Dinner time, get down stairs." A teenage boy stood there, leaning casually against the pink painted door frame. His hair blonde, a delicate yellowed shade, and cut short to his chin. His clothes were softly wrinkled from obvious over wear, tears in the knees of his jeans and his black long sleeve shirt obviously threadbare at the elbows.

"Ok, Mellsy, I'll be right down." The boy smiled and started picking up his toys one by one, carefully stacking them into his bright orange toy box. Mello, scowled, watching her with annoyance, annoyed for two reasons. One being the time he was taking, and two the childish nick name he'd given him.

"Forget it, forget it, and just go down stairs. Watari wants you downstairs for dinner _now_; he's pissed at you for missing dinner so many times. You need to socialize; you spend too much time up here with your little toys."

The boy stared back, his eyes like little black buttons. "They're my friends," he said quietly, voice blank and emotionless. "They care about me."

For a moment, Mello could do nothing but stare, trapped in the two dark black galaxies that were the child's eyes. He could feel the hair stand up on the back of his neck, and he shuddered slightly. "W-whatever, Near. I'll finish putting them away for you. I'm not going to dinner anyway, I'm not hungry," he stuttered, just wanting him to leave –

_god just go PLEASE i can't take this chill in my spine i'm in PAIN from it_

– and not come back. They had never gotten along. Near never failed to frighten him in some way, even in that he was a challenge.

At Whammy's House, at his home, everything was a race. Who could be number one? Who would end up on top? And he could never seem to manage to be that one. He was always stuck at number two, being beaten out by little, harmless Near. He could never understand why. It drove him _insane_.

He watched as the boy stood up, brushing imaginary dust off his pajamas and smiling as he did so. Mello glared at him as he passed, but he paid no notice, only smiling broader. Once he was gone, Mello curled up on the floor, kneeling with his knees to his chest, arms wrapped around them. He surveyed the toys that decorated the floor.

_princes and princesses with their little pink dresses always so happy with their painted on plastic smiles if only life here could be so good_

Mello shifted position, now sitting cross legged. He scooped up the toys, dumping them back into the fluorescent toy box without care, the complete opposite of Near's careful, on the verge of OCD behavior.

With his rushed, sloppy method, it was only about a minute before he had the entire contents of the floor back in its home, where it belonged. Near wouldn't be pleased when he saw how he'd treated his precious "friends," but he didn't care. He was annoyed about nothing now, and wanted to do anything that might cause at least a slight hindrance to that spiteful little albino, Near.

He remained on the floor for some time, returned to his fetal position, curled tightly into a ball, –

_here no one can reach me i'm protected in my shell behind my shield_

– just staring at the floor, holding back the stream of curses he wanted to let out and biting back the stream of tears he wanted to cry.

Mello took several deep breaths, rising to his feet. He mumbled a few quiet words of comforts to himself, knowing that no one else there would. No one cared. And if they did, they certainly refused to show it.

He gazed around the room, eyes fixing on a shiny bit of plastic. He couldn't help but smile, and his eyes lit up. "Chocolate," he said with a grin, snatching up the little bar. He glanced at the label, some weird little Swedish name. Whatever, Near was a little Swedish freak, he probably smuggled it in somehow. Everyone knew Watari favored him…

Whatever. Didn't matter. He tore open the candy, managing to both savor each bite and devour the chocolate all at once. The second it was finished and he had moved on to licking at the remains that stained the tips of his fingers, a peculiar sensation began.

An almost painful tingling began in his feet, working its way up to the top of his head, rushing through his body, burning his limbs. He felt his heart skip a few beats as it passed through it, and he doubled over in pain. His breath shortened and he began to gasp, collapsing to his knees, but he never felt the comfort of the floor below him. His eyes flung open, and he glanced around in a wild panic. Around him he could determine what nothing was, the only thing visible were dark grayed out shapes, and below was nothing but air.

He tensed, preparing for the impact with the ground. He leaned forward as he fell, ready to roll as he made contact, just like in those kung fu movies he liked so much, and his eyes were clenched closed again. But the ground never came.

He opened his eyes hesitantly, and still, nothing but air surrounding him, and his thoughts raced, –

_help me what's happening what is this lord have i died am i an angel now?_

– and any sanity he had left snapped and the thoughts flared faster, and he blanked out, falling blankly, mind and sight a blur.

When he regained consciousness, Mello's mind processed one thing. Ground. His hands padded the ground around him, feeling a thick layer of hard plastic with a light bumpy ridge, and he tried to grasp at it, to hold himself down. But there was nothing to hold, and his breathing began to speed up once more.

His eyes flung open, but the light above was far too bright, and sent a searing pain through his head as he watched it. They slammed closed immediately, and he groaned softly. He attempted to open them once again, this time blinking them open, trying to adjust to his light as he did.

But this time, no glaring light shone above him. A peculiar looking boy stood there, face looming just inches above Mello's. The boy had bright purple hair, and over his dark eyes a pair of orange goggles were settled. His shirt was striped between two colors of purple, a light shade of lavender and a dark violet. He was grinning madly, showing nearly all of his teeth, particularly his curiously pointed canines. And settled upon his head, nestled among his messy hair, were a pair of cat ears, twitching violently. "Hello, darling."

Mello jumped back, bright blue eyes wide and staring. "Who, what, where-" he began spurting out questions, but quickly stopped himself. Take this slowly. "Who are you?" he said cautiously, slowly sliding back, moving away from the…questionable boy before him.

"I'm Cheshire, but you can call me Chesh, and because I know you're going to ask," he waggled a finger in Mello's face, "you're in Wonderland. Or at least that's what he tells us. He says we're all in Wonderland where no one can hurt us and no one can take us away from him. He protects us, and we love him." His grin widened, and his eyes, even masked by the goggles, were obviously blank, two pools of muddy green liquid with no reflection and no gentle ripples.

Mello attempted to slide back more, but his back made contact with more plastic, this time completely smooth. His hands groped at the wall, looking for anything to give him some comfort.

_a weapon, escape, __**anything**_

He slowly rose to his feet, gliding up the wall behind him, eyes locked on Cheshire who merely continued to grin and watch him, rising as he did. "S-stay away from me," he said hesitantly, shifting slowly to the left, trying to make his grand escape.

Cheshire's eyes grew darker for a moment, then flashed back to the creepy, albeit extremely more friendly shine they'd held when Mello first opened his eyes. "But she asked me to take you on a tour, c'mon, you'll like it!" he laughed, grabbing the blonde's hand in a death grip and dragging him along, tail that matched his shirt flicking behind him.

The cat creature seemed to float along, and made snarky, huffy comments whenever Mello stopped to breathe or clamber over some absurd obstacle, like a massive plastic pony. "Goshh, Mello, you're so slow," he said, putting his hands on his hips and sticking out his tongue.

Mello stopped short, half way over the severed plastic leg of what he assumed to be a very, very large doll. "How…how do you know my name?"

Cheshire tilted his head to one side. "Your…name?" His eyes were blank again, and his mouth hitched open ever so slightly.

"Yes. Mello. You called me Mello." Mello backed off a few steps, hands stretched out behind him to guard off any offending objects strewn about behind him.

The creature's voice took on an intriguing tone, like it had been layered twice, the second layer higher in pitch. "S-silly Mello, you t-told me your name, w-when you fell from the sky," he choked out, pointing upwards and grinning, smile now stretched to the point where is seemed to pain him.

_he's being played like a little puppet just look at those strings being pulled_

"N-no, I don't think I did. I think you're lying." And just as the words left his mouth, something appeared in Cheshire's eyes. A light, something that wasn't there before.

"L-lying? Lying? Lying…" He repeated the word again and again, his hands shaking and he collapsed to his knees, but he was tugged back up by an invisible string that ran through his back. And he stood limp, arms and legs hanging loosely and eyes shining, white foam surrounding his mouth.

"Y-yes. I never told you my name, but you know it…And I think…I think I know you..."

_but how and from where and why did the sight of him now with that light in his eyes bring on a soft feeling of warmth that radiated from his heart_

He was moving towards Cheshire, each step hesitant. He had no plan, just move forward, snap the strings, help him regain control, whoever he was. He was inches from the cat creature now, and he took his hand in his own, and a wall was broken down. Everything fell into place in one beautiful moment.

He dropped the boys hand and flung his arms around him in a tight embrace, nestling his head into the taller boy's neck. "Matt…Matt…" he whispered again and again, bringing the boy tighter with every word.

Matt stared blankly now, surrounded by a shining light that was emitting from his every pore.

_and he looked like an angel just like he really was and now they could be angels together_

His colors faded from him and into the light, leaving him in monotone shades, but new color quickly flooded in – red hair, black and white shirt, only the goggles remaining the same, his orange gate to see the world. The cat ears and tail fell from his body, and he gasped, breathing like his lungs had never before seen air.

"Mel…" he whispered, returning the embrace, one hand on the boy's waist, the other on the back of his head, pulling him close. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry I left you…"

"I'm sorry I forgot you, he just makes everything so blank and it just turns to anger and I can't feel like an angel when he's around." Mello murmured into the crook of Matt's neck.

"For me it was…it was joy. He could make me grin, even when I didn't want to. But…but I think it's ok now. Now that we're together again, we can control it. We're the angels," he interlaced his fingers with the blonde's, "and he's the devil, but we can handle this. I trust you."

"I trust you too."

_i love you too_

The End.

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A/N: I'm baaaack~! Enjoy? Confused? Yeah, you probably are. That's ok, I was too, and I wrote it. Basically, somehow Near was taking other people and putting them into his toy box but through the magic of LOOOOOVE Matt and Mello escape? Ahh. I have no idea. xD


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